I want to be famous…

Sadly, increasing numbers of young folk believe they are both entitled and able, thanks to their parents, thanks to lazy new-age mumbo-jumbo, and thanks to a general milieu that makes it all seem so easy. The roster of TV and radio game shows and talent quests is endless. Just this week a promotion for a remake of the movie Fame opened with the line ”Got talent? Get famous!”, and offered a chance at – you guessed it – instant celebrity. And that’s on top of an advertising and marketing machine that makes a glamorous life seem not just accessible, but the norm.

”We market unrealistic aspirations to young kids all the time,”…”They’re bombarded by messages all the time of this perfect, exciting, sexy adolescent life. It’s hardly surprising their desires far outstrip their needs, and their abilities.”

A report from the Pew Institute in the US a couple of years ago found that for 81 per cent of 18-25-year-olds, their chief ambition in life was to be rich. For 51 per cent of them, what they most ardently desired was to be famous.